The Playboy's Fugitive Bride (17 page)

The thought of running into a bevy of reporters on her way into town had made her even sicker to her stomach, but Massimo was way ahead of the game—probably from force of habit.  There had been no mob on the other side of the wrought iron gate that protected the house, nor at the end of Andretti Drive, the private road that led to the estate.  Instead, armed guards were stationed along Andretti Drive and Mount Reservoir Way—the road that connected the mountain to Route 80.

It was only when Nia had encountered the human barricade of more armed guards and a couple local police officers stationed at the intersection of Mount Reservoir Way and Route 80 that she fully realized the length to which Massimo would go to protect his property.  He’d obviously gained the compliance of the other residents of the mountain to keep the public out.  Only residents were allowed in, and since nobody knew what kind of car she drove, Nia had cruised past the crowd of reporters—some, she recognized from last night’s fiasco—and headed toward downtown Granite Falls without any problems.

It both excited and scared her that any one man had that much power.  It had scared her even more that she was about to deceive that very man.  But it was either deceive Massimo or risk her and her brother’s lives.

After leaving the Mercedes in the parking lot of a supermarket, Nia’s first stop had been to the bank.  She’d been a bit hesitant to go in.  What if someone recognized her and sounded the alarm?  Massimo wasn’t there to protect her.  She would have been all alone with no idea how to deal with that kind of nuisance.

She’d scanned the employees until she found an elderly man she hoped didn’t keep up with the local gossip and who was oblivious to the hype surrounding her name.

She’d chosen well.  The old man didn’t blink an eye when she’d shown him her I.D.

Securing a reliable car that would get her to Manchester safely had proven to be a much more difficult task.  If she’d foreseen this particular problem, she’d have kept the car she’d rented when she first came to town.  But hindsight wasn’t foresight.

“Where to, Miss?”

Nia took stock of her surroundings and realized they were approaching the exit from the highway to Granite Falls.  “You can drop me off at Jakes-Rent-A-Wreck on Oak Street,” she told the driver.  “It’s my last stop.”

She’d exhausted all the decent options in Granite Falls and the surrounding towns.  Not to mention the hefty cab fare she was racking up.  The only option she had left was to head back to Jake’s Rent-A-Wreck and hand over a sizable amount of cash for a piece of junk.  She hoped the beat-up sedan—the most promising car on the lot she’d turned down this morning—was still available.  Since she couldn’t rent a car without identification, she would just have to talk Jake into selling her his cheapest wreck for cash—no questions asked.

When the driver pulled to a stop, Nia glanced at the meter and almost fainted.
You’re doing it for Aaron
, she consoled herself.  She pulled some cash from her bag, counted off the fare, plus a tip, slid open the glass partition, thanked the driver for her patience.

As she stepped inside the barbed-wired fence of Jake’s Rent-A-Wreck, the church bell began to chime out the hour.  She would miss this antiquated custom when she left Granite Falls.  She had just enough time to negotiate the purchase of a wreck and park it in a secluded area before heading back to the mansion to claim her two million dollars.

There was just one more detail she had to figure out: how to get two million dollars in cash out of a heavily guarded mansion and into her getaway car.

“I suppose it’s safe to say that you enjoyed your lunch?”

“I suppose.”  Nia set her folded napkin on the table next to her plate and raised her gaze to meet Massimo’s.  “It was a good lunch,” she added patting her stuffed stomach and resisting the urge to unsnap the button of her jeans and pull down the zipper, just a fraction.

“Your uninhibited appetite for food is inspiring.  I love to watch you eat,” he added in a lazily seductive tone, his blue eyes dazzling in the afternoon sunlight that streamed through the glass of the four-season balcony off the master suite.

Nia studied him guardedly, certain there was a lot more he would love to watch her do.  “Well, if you must know, I didn’t have breakfast this morning.”

“Pity.”  His mouth pulled down into a frown.  “I asked Azi to make your favorites.  You especially liked her spinach quiche and sausage egg casserole if I recall correctly from yesterday.”

“You recall correctly.”  Nia took a sip of the tea Azi had served with their meal of pork braised in milk with carrots, mashed potato, and a side of spinach sautéed in garlic.  “I was too upset to eat after I saw the news this morning.  Can you believe they’re wondering if I’m the woman who broke up you and Gabrielle?  And the nerve of them to suggest that I’m pregnant.”

“It’s not that farfetched if you do the math.  Many unplanned pregnancies have sent countless couples racing to the altar.”

“Well, both you and I know that I’m not pregnant, and since we’re not planning to start a family, it’s a moot point,” Nia said, swiping her wrists dismissively.  The thought of Massimo Andretti’s heir growing in her belly sent mixed feelings dashing through her.

“You seem rather disgusted by the thought,” he said.  “I do apologize for subjecting you to this madness,” he continued when she didn’t respond.  “You came to Granite Falls for one purpose only—to sleep with me for four million dollars.  I remember you specifically said that there were no strings attached.  I apologize for complicating your life by announcing to the world that we would be married next week.”

You have no idea how complicated you made it
.  Nia watched him over the rim of her mug as more bouts of confusion flowed through her.  Was he playing her?  “You really mean that?”

“I do, wholeheartedly,” he said, placing his hand against his heart and offering her a forgiving smile.  “Perhaps I got carried away with the warm welcome my friends were showering on you.  Then there was my cousin grilling me about my intentions for you.  I got the feeling that he was making a play for you.  He has done that in the past, you know.”

Nia watched him closely, trying to figure him out.  If he was playing her, he was doing a damned good job of covering it up.  Something told her not to trust him.   It was the same something that had told her not to let Aaron tryout for his high school football team.  If she’d listened to that something, she wouldn’t be in this mess.  “Well Erik did say you and Adam have been fighting over everything since you were kids,” she said to move the conversation along. 

He leaned forward and folded his arms across the tabletop.  “So you can understand my reaction when the mob descended upon us.  My first instinct was to protect you by informing the world, including my cousin, that you were mine.”

“It’s nice,” Nia said, her face breaking into an unexpected grin.

“What’s nice?”

“Having someone leap to my defense.”

“I protect what’s mine.”  His eyes were warm as he gazed into hers.

“You made that very clear this morning with the armed guards patrolling the roads and the police barricades at the main entrance into the mountain.  Because of your protective instincts, not to mention your infinite power, I was able to spend a stress-free day.” 
Well, kind of
.

He studied her for a long moment before asking, “Why did you need to leave the mansion, anyway?  You have everything you need here.”

“Yeah right, like you didn’t have me followed.”  Nia crossed her fingers under the table.  Even though she hadn’t actually seen anyone following her this morning, it didn’t mean Massimo hadn’t put a tail on her.  She was sure his spies were trained to stay out of sight, much like Eddie’s.

“I didn’t,” he said softly.

The gentle tone in his eyes and voice told Nia that he was telling the truth.  “I had some business to take care of,” she offered grudgingly.

“What kind of business?”

“Personal.”

He stared at her, waiting for more.

“I needed tampons,” she said derisively.  “You didn’t have any lying around, or did you, and I just missed them?”

He chuckled.  “No,
cara
.  I don’t keep tampons around, and since Azi is past the age of reproduction, I suppose you had no other choice but to leave the safety of the mansion.  But if you’d called, I would have been happy to stop at the drugstore on my way home and pick some up for you.”

Nia giggled.

“What’s so funny?” he asked with a frown.

“You, standing in the feminine aisle of the drugstore trying to figure out what kind of tampons to buy for me.”

His frown deepened.  “You mean there are different kinds?”

Nia was certain he was toying with her.  A playboy like Massimo would surely know women had a selection of tampons to choose from, just as men had a variety of condoms to meet their individual needs.

“I guess I would have just bought one of every kind and let you choose.”

“Well your thoughtfulness this morning spared you the embarrassment, and I had a pleasant tampon-purchase experience.  Thank you.”

“No need to thank me, Nia.  I created the mess by publicizing an impending marriage between us, so it’s only right I clean it up.”

I wish you’d cleaned up the one you made six years ago.  Better still, I wish you hadn’t created one.
  “It takes a real man to admit that he’s made a mistake, especially to the world.”

“I can’t make you want to marry me, Nia.”  He shrugged dismissively and leaned back in his chair.

“No, you can’t.”  Nia pulled a leg up under her.  “And hypothetically speaking, even if I did marry you, what would we tell our children when they asked how we met?  Can you imagine sitting them down and telling them that their mother offered to sell you her virginity for four million dollars, and that you actually took her up on the offer?  What scandal!”

He threw his head back and laughed out loud.  The richness of his humor wrapped around Nia like warm velvet and made her heart tremble in response.  His laugh was marvelously catching and soon she was chuckling along with him, reveling in the few rapturous moments of enjoyment.  It felt wonderful to share laughter with him, something she never thought was possible when she set out to con him.

There was a genuinely fun side to him that made her giddy, like she was seventeen again.  This is the man Nia had fantasized about for six years—one who was charming and funny.  This is who she’d hoped he would be—a man who would make her laugh like her father used to make her mother laugh.

“Actually,” he said, remnants of laughter still in his voice, “I think I would enjoy telling our children and grandchildren about our initial encounter.  If you marry me—hypothetically speaking of course—our story would no doubt be the favorite topic of discussion at many a Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  You would be the Pretty Woman of Granite Falls.”

Nia blinked.  “You’ve seen
Pretty Woman
?”

“Several times.”

There he went, surprising her again.  When she’d told him that she wanted to get to know him before they made love, Nia hadn’t expected this kind of ‘knowing’.  In fact, she hadn’t expected any kind of ‘knowing’ since asking for time was part of her plan to keep him at bay.

She felt herself relaxing in this simple, ordinary side of Massimo Andretti.  It was a side that could easily break out of that rigid shell of a man he portrayed in his business suits.  A side that could change from eating gourmet meals in his isolated castle to wolfing down hamburgers and fries at a noisy pizza joint.  It was a side that could skip the business drama of the boardroom to sit beside her at the movies, holding her hand while they shared a large popcorn and a box of chocolate-covered raisins.  This side of him was so appealing, it seemed more intimate than sex.  It was his soul in all its meekness.

“But Vivian only asked Edward for four thousand dollars in exchange for her services for one week,” he said, breaking into her thoughts.

Nia’s lips pursed on a smile.  “Well, she asked for four, but he bargained her down to three.”

“Perhaps I should have bargained you down to three million, then?”  His eyes were enigmatic, filled with mystery and enchantment.

“Vivian was no virgin,” Nia stated with a frisky lift in her voice.  “I deserve extra for that.  Believe me, I’m worth the three million, nine hundred and ninety-seven thousand dollars extra.”

“No argument there,” he said with a smile.

“But Vivian managed to capture Edward’s heart in the end,” the romantic little girl in her added.  “It goes to show that a wealthy sophisticated man can fall in love with a woman with a shameful past.”

“It’s a fairytale, Nia.”  A doleful tone crept into his voice.

“It can still happen.  You don’t have to be perfect for the perfect someone to love you.  Edward was locked away in an emotional prison, and it took an imperfect, unexpected woman to free him from that prison.  He’d had so many failed relationships, including the one with his father, that it had warped his perspective about trust, love, and happily ever after.”

“If you believe so much in happily ever after, why aren’t you chasing your dreams instead of playing hooker with me?”

His words and the vehemence in his voice took Nia by surprise.  She particularly didn’t like the word ‘playing’.  She shrugged off the ominous feeling.  “I didn’t say I believe in it.  I just said it’s out there for those who do believe.”

A frown settled into his features and he pulled his gaze from hers.  He wrapped his long fingers around his mug and stared off into the cold white vastness on the other side of the glass-encased balcony.

Nia shuddered as if Massimo had summoned the cold onto the balcony.  Even the fire that had been crackling merrily nearby seemed to ebb in the chill.  As she sipped the last of her tea, Nia wondered where he’d gone as much as she wondered about his change in temper. 

She’d returned from her trip into town to find Massimo waiting for her in the foyer in what she considered a very cheery mood.  She’d expected him to berate her for locking him out of his bedroom last night, but he’d said not a word about it, nor had he brought up the subject of marriage or their little arrangement until now.